What is a Hero?
by Shaded Reality
Summary: The first thing he noticed was the smoke. It had already made his eyes begin to tear up, and it was already starting to fill his lungs. "I couldn't have lived with myself if those kids had died while I was watching." USUK fluff.


A/N: Woo! I finished! This is a requested one-shot from Neelh who was the 10th reviewer for one of my other fics, Stars and Stripes. It was angsty USUK fluff that was requested, and I complied. I just hope it wasn't too bad...

Disclaimer: I DO NOT NOR WILL I EVER OWN HETALIA. Just saying.

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><p>The world was black.<p>

The only sounds he heard were the faint beeping of some sort of machines, and someone softly speaking. No, wait. It was the news.

"And just hours before now, a local nursery school was burned to the ground…"

Nursery school… burned to the ground…? That sounded familiar to him as he lay in the slightly uncomfortable bed.

"… No fatalities thanks to the heroics…"

Heroes… that reminded him of something that had happened earlier that day… but what was it? He couldn't recall.

"… Teenager bravely entered the flaming building to rescue the students."

That was definitely important, but he still couldn't remember…

"…the last of the children, he passed out. Eyewitness accounts say 'he was crying tears of smoke'…"

Smoke… he remembered the choking, suffocating stench of fire for some reason…

"And we have just received his name- Alfred F. Jones."

Wait, wasn't that him? What was he doing here? Alfred pondered these questions as he slipped back to unconsciousness.

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><p>"Just stop! Enough with this already!" exploded Arthur, a vein at his temple throbbing.<p>

"I was just trying to explain-"

"I don't care! It's always 'hero this' or 'justice that'. There are no heroes in the world, Alfred! It's time to grow up!" yelled Arthur, cutting Alfred off midsentence.

"Arthur-"

"Tell me, Alfred, what exactly is a 'hero'?" snapped Arthur venomously.

"…" When Alfred didn't respond, Arthur just stormed away, up to his room.

Alfred winced as he heard the door slam from upstairs. Somehow, he and his boyfriend, Arthur had gotten into an argument. It had gone from just the usual quiet bickering to a full-blown fight. Honestly, Alfred couldn't even remember what it was about.

Sighing in defeat, Alfred sullenly walked to the door. He paused a moment before opening it, as if waiting for Arthur to appear so they could make amends. When he didn't, Alfred just sighed again and opened the door, leaving his boyfriend's house with another depressed sigh.

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><p>"Move!"<p>

Somehow, Alfred found himself at the scene of a burning school. He shoved aside the people who were just standing around, gaping in horror at the scene and grabbed a bucket of water from a man standing motionless in shock. Quickly, he dumped the water onto his body and chucked the bucket away.

When he started towards the burning school, someone managed to shake themselves out of their shock and grab his arm.

"You can't go in, it's too dangerous," they managed to say.

Alfred glared at them as he replied, "There are still little kids in there. There's no way I'll just leave them."

With that, Alfred tore his arm from the person's grip and raced towards the burning school. The main entrance was already open, so he raced into that, ignoring the wave of heat that immediately met him.

The first thing he noticed was the smoke. It had already made his eyes begin to tear up, and it was already starting to fill his lungs. As Alfred battled his way through the flaming building, he kept a sharp eye out for any little kids that might still be inside.

Looking into a classroom, Alfred saw a small silhouette crouched in a corner of the room. Breaking the door down with his shoulder, Alfred hurried in. Behind his glasses, his azure eyes were streaming tears from all of the smoke.

"Hey, you've got to get out of here," said Alfred, as calmly as he could manage, holding his hand out to the little girl crouched in the corner.

"I-I'm sc-cared," cried the girl, grabbing on to Alfred's hand.

"Shhh… you'll be just fine," replied Alfred, though he deteriorated into a fit of coughing and hacking right afterwards. "Do you know if there's anyone else inside of here?"

The girl sniffled as she replied, "I think there were two others still somewhere in here."

"Alright, thanks," said Alfred, picking up the girl to shield her from the intense heat of the raging fire.

Alfred began to make his way back to the entrance, making sure to look in all of the classrooms that he passed. By now though, he could barely see anything through his streaming eyes, and he was plagued by fits of racking coughs.

"Look, mister!" exclaimed the girl, coughing slightly and pointing to a corner in the hallway.

Alfred followed the girl's pointing finger to see that there was another shape huddled right underneath a water fountain. He hurried over and lightly shook the small boy.

"Hey, come on. I'm getting you out of here," coughed Alfred, offering the boy his now smoke-stained hand.

"O-okay," whimpered they boy, attempting to stand.

When he couldn't find the strength to, Alfred shifted the girl's weight to just one of is arms and picked up the boy as well. Making his way to the exit, he tried to shield the children from the heat of the fire as best he could.

When they were about ten feet away from the exit, Alfred set them down and coughed, saying, "Go out there to the adults. They'll take care of you."

The two small students nodded and tottered off. Alfred watched them get out of the building before resuming his search for the last kid.

Alfred wandered through the halls, shielding his face from the heat of the fire, and attempting to not breathe in as much smoke as before. At the end of the hallway he was searching, Alfred stumbled a bit and started violently coughing. When he looked up, he saw a small collapsed body on the floor.

"Th-there you are," coughed Alfred, stumbling over to the little girl. When he slightly shook her, there was no response; she was unconscious. So Alfred just picked her up and began stumbling back to the exit.

Alfred nearly tumbled to the ground as he tripped over a piece of the ceiling that was beginning to fall. By now he could only see a few feet in front of himself, and the cloudy tears filling his eyes blurred it all.

The heat had long since cracked his glasses, and he no longer remembered where he was. Every few seconds his body would be racked by severe coughing fits, and his vision just kept getting worse and worse.

Finally, Alfred decided to just go into one of the classrooms. He broke down the door with his shoulder, but stumbled and fell to the ground. It took him a few moments to regain his footing, but when he did, he made his way to the window.

The glass had already cracked from the extreme heat, and Alfred shifted the weight of the unconscious girl just enough to punch open the glass window.

Outside, he heard people shouting, but Alfred just ignored it and concentrated on clearing the window of glass. When he was finished, he leaned out of the window, and began to slowly lowering the girl to the ground. When she was suddenly taken from his hands, Alfred thought nothing of it, and promptly passes out.

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><p>The world was still black.<p>

Even when his eyes slowly opened, the world was still black shadows. Alfred felt something warm grabbing his hand, and it felt nice. He heard the soft beeping of machines from before, but the news was turned off. There was another sound coming from his left, it sounded somewhat like someone breathing.

Slowly Alfred stretched a little bit. His lungs hurt like hell, and he was sore and felt sunburned, and one of his hands felt slightly shredded, but that was all he could tell so far. But what had happened with his eyes?

The steady breathing beside him hitched slightly, and he heard a chair squeak as the person in it stretched. The hand holding onto his flexed slightly, but stayed firmly wrapped around his hand.

"Alfred?"

Alfred blinked in surprise. That voice, the accent…

"Arthur?"

There was a sigh of relief in response, and he heard the Brit shift forwards in the bedside chair.

"Of course," replied Arthur, relief lacing his voice.

"Where am I?" asked Alfred, blinking again, trying to figure out why the lights were off or whatever.

"Look around you, you're in the hospital you git," replied Arthur, though he sounded too happy for the insult to be whole hearted.

"Ummm…" Alfred blinked hard several times, trying to figure out why he couldn't see anything.

"Alfred?" asked Arthur, his voice concerned.

"…Yeah?"

"Look at me," commanded Arthur, his voice slightly panicked.

Alfred turned his head in the direction of his love's voice trying to focus on where he most likely was. He heard a sharp intake of breath and the hand holding his tightened slightly.

"Alfred. Tell me, how many fingers am I holding up?" asked Arthur, his voice deadly serious.

"… I wish I could say, but…" Alfred just trailed off, not wanting to confirm his worst fear.

"Y-you can't… see…?" asked Arthur slowly, his voice horrified.

"…No. What happened?"

"After you passed out, apparently some bystanders grabbed you and pulled you out of the burning school. When you got here, there was apparently so much smoke in your eyes they had to try dangerous surgery to fix it," replied Arthur, his voice slightly numb.

"… Arthur…"

"Why? Dammit why, Alfred? Why did you have to go into that burning building? It wasn't your responsibility," yelled Arthur, his voice quivering.

"Arthur," said Alfred, detaching his hand from the Brit's. He slowly moved it upwards until he felt it brush Arthur's cheek. It was wet. "I couldn't have lived with myself if those kids had died while I was watching."

Alfred moved his hand so that it was cupping the Brit's face and lightly moved his thumb to brush away the tears. He felt Arthur's cheeks heat up beneath his hand as he did so.

"But… your eyes," said Arthur weakly, holding Alfred's hand to is face.

"I'm still alive, right?" asked Alfred, grinning slightly, though he himself was slightly at a loss without his sight.

Arthur just responded by pressing his lips to Alfred's. Their lips fit together perfectly, the contours and curves seemingly made for one another.

Alfred enjoyed the soft warmth on his own lips, it felt comforting to him. But now he was noticing all of the little things he never noticed before.

Alfred could feel Arthur's face heating up even more in a scarlet blush, and he could even feel the Brit's heart racing, pulsing beneath his fingers. He could hear his lover's small gasps as they briefly parted, his breath coming in short, pleasured pants. Alfred could smell the fragrant herbs Arthur used to flavor his tea with, as well as the clean smell of soap that always seemed to follow the Brit around. He could even taste the Earl Grey tea on Arthur's lips, a surprisingly pleasant taste, one Alfred immediately associated with his lover. Maybe losing his sight wasn't too bad after all…

When they finally broke apart, Arthur was still panting slightly and laughed, "You git, of course you are. But… why?"

"Tell me, Arthur, what is a hero?"

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><p>AN: Sooooo...? Good, awful, neither? I hope the kiss scene wasn't a fail, it was my first time writing a legit kiss scene...


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